OATMAN

Oatman is an old mining town that is a tourist attraction now.  Pat, Ilene, Diane and I spent part of the day there yesterday checking out all the shops and watching the gun fight they have each day.  Also watched the donkeys which roam about the town.  The following pictures are of the area and doings.

Oatman Hotel

One of the many shops

Another shop

Oatman Post Office

Town history

Cactus

The price tag on this fine washing machine was $241.00

Route 66 runs through the town.

Rules

The south end of a north bound donkey

Pat couldn't get her head in all the way.

Another one of the many donkeys in town.

Diane trying out the fit of the coffin that was used for a former sheriff.

Pat

Ladies waiting to get in the cafe that has all the dollar bills on the walls and the door.

One of the walls inside.  All the walls are covered with dollar bills.

Ilene, Pat and Diane

Another establishment

The two bank robbers talk over their plan

Now they talk over who will hold the sack of gold and who will get the horses

This is the bank robber robber and he wants the gold

This fellow was going to throw a coin in the air so the robbers could see who was the best shot

The bank robber robber has shot the bank robber instead of the coin

And now the old fellow has shot the bank robber robber

And the old fellow gets the gold and so ends the gun fight and all the pictures. Don't fool with the old fellows!

Patrick

HUALAPAI MOUNTAIN RESORT

This morning we met with friends at the Hualapai Mountain Resort for brunch.  They have a very nice brunch on Sunday mornings and we have gone there at least once each winter we have been in Arizona.  The resort is in the mountains near Kingman AZ.  It is at around 6,000 feet elevation.

This is the group.  From left to right is Jim, Ilene, myself, Pat, Diane, and Sara. 

Normally there are some Elk right outside the restaurant.  This year there weren't any, but there were two deer.  This is one of them.

This is the other deer.  He is a young buck.

This is a shot of the mountain side from the parking lot of the restaurant.

Another shot of the surrounding mountains.  Lots of snow.

This is a shot of Diane, Pat and Ilene outside the Colorado Bell casino where we visited last week. 

Patrick

BALLOONS

Each winter they have a balloon festival here in Lake Havasu City.  It is a three day affair with lots of hot air balloons and other entertainment.  This years festival was mostly rained out or winded out the first two days and the balloons weren't able to fly.  However, on the last day of the festival it was nice and they all got into the air.  The following pictures are of several of the balloons.

There were many different colors of balloons.

This was a shot of several that were up and on their way.

Two more.

A nice yellow one.

This was one of the main areas where several were being prepared to take off.  There were several places where they prepared them to fly.

This is that same area shown above, but expanded to show all the boats out watching them.

This was one that they were getting ready to take off.  You can see the flames from the burner getting the air in the balloon hot and ready to go.

Patrick

ARIZONA

We are in Lake Havasu City Arizona now for the winter.  Had a good trip down and were very glad we waited an extra day to start the trip.  Had good roads all the way and a lot of sunshine.  We are in our very nice house here now and mostly unpacked and organized.  It will be a week tomorrow that we got here.  The following pictures were taken from the nice deck area in front of the house.  It is going to be a nice place to sit with an afternoon libation.  Please pardon the hazy pictures.  We have had rain the last couple days and it hasn't all settled yet.

This is looking west across the lake into California.

This is another shot looking west across the lake and shows the area where the casino is located.  You have to take a boat across the lake to get there.  It runs about every half hour and is free if you cut the coupons out of the local paper.

This is a Bougainvillea bush on the front side of the deck.

This is a shot looking northwest at a mountain range.

This is a shot looking southeast at more mountains.

Patrick

WINTER WONDERLAND

Winter started about a week ago now.  We had our second snow storm last night.  As much as I don't care for snow, I have to say that last nights snow is very pretty this morning.  It would have been even better if I would have had some sunshine to make it sparkle.  Anyway, the following pictures are of the beginning storm last Friday and the snow of last night.

This is our backyard at the beginning of the storm a week ago.

This is the bird feeder area at the beginning of the storm.

This is the backyard the next morning after the storm.

This is the river after the storm.  It has always intrigued me how the water turns black after a snow fall. 

The bird feeder area after last nights snow.

Backyard shot after last nights snow.

Another backyard shot.

Backyard and the river.

Crab Apple tree.  The apples don't show well.  Bright sunshine would have helped.

Maple tree in front of the Gazebo.

Patrick

Smallest to Largest

Just a couple pictures of the little Hummingbird and the large Pileated Woodpecker.  The Hummer picture was taken about a month back when they were still some of them around.  The Woodpecker picture was taken the last couple weeks.  You might notice also in the Hummer picture a bee on the bottom of the feeder.  I didn't notice him/her until I was editing the picture later.

Hummer on the wing.  Check out the bee on the bottom of the feeder.

Woody having some lunch.

Patrick

CARROTS TO CAKE

For the first time I planted Carrots in my garden this year.  They came up as expected, but I wasn't sure whether there were any Carrots under the nice tops.  We had tried pulling some and either the stems broke off or what we got was about the size of a pencil.  So, this morning I got the shovel and started digging them up.  There were Carrots there, although not as big as I had hoped.  The following pictures show the crop and what I did with half of them.  The other half I gave to our neighbors Dale and Emmy.  I had made a Carrot cake in the past that they liked, so now they have the Carrots to make one. 

This is the crop of Carrots.  I used half and gave half to the neighbors.

This is the Carrot cake hot out of the oven.

This is the cake with icing.

First piece.

It was good.

Patrick